Hampton Hawes Trio – Live at Radio France Studio 104, Paris – June 25, 1971 – Radio France
The Hampton Hawes Trio, featuring Henri Franklin on bass and Mike Carvin on drums – recorded live at Studio 104 of Radio France on June 25, 1971.
Hawes’ playing style developed in the early 1950s. He included “figures used by Parker and [Bud] Powell (but he played with a cleaner articulation than Powell), some Oscar Peterson phrases, and later, some Bill Evans phrases, and an impressive locked-hands style in which the top notes always sang out clearly.” He also helped develop “the double-note blues figures and rhythmically compelling comping style that Horace Silver and others were to use in the mid-1950s.” His technique featured “great facility with rapid runs and a versatile control of touch.”
Hawes influenced a great number of prominent pianists, including André Previn, Peterson, Horace Silver, Claude Williamson, Pete Jolly, and Toshiko Akiyoshi. Hawes’ own influences came from a number of sources, including the gospel music and spirituals he heard in his father’s church as a child, and the boogie-woogie piano of Earl Hines. Hawes also learned much from pianists Powell and Nat King Cole, among others. By Hawes’ own account, however, his principal source of influence was his friend Charlie Parker.
In addition to his celebrated work as soloist and group leader, Hampton Hawes became a celebrated author, penning his autobiography Raise Up Off Me which was not only awarded the Deems Taylor Award for Music Writing, it was also the first example of an exploration into the West Coast Jazz scene on the West Coast. Written with Don Asher and published in 1974, Raise Up Off Me shed light on his heroin addiction, the bebop movement, and his friendships with some of the leading jazz musicians of his time. It was the first book about the bebop era written by a musician. Critic Gary Giddins, who wrote the book’s introduction, called Raise Up Off Me “a major contribution to the literature of jazz.” The Penguin Guide to Jazz cites it as “one of the most moving memoirs ever written by a musician, and a classic of jazz writing.”
Man of many talents who left us way too early at age 48.
Dive into this French Radio concert from 1971 and clear your head. Works like a charm.
